The Tampa Bay Lightning have some tough choices ahead of them, one of which is which player, if any, the team will buyout to free up some cap space?
The 2015-16 season has officially come and gone. The on-ice portion of the season is over and here is where the real fun begins. Well…at least as long as your name isn’t Steve Yzerman. The Tampa Bay Lightning have more than their fair share of tough decisions to make before the Lightning take the ice to kick off the 2016-17 season. Unfortunately, many of those decisions will determine who will remain on the roster next season.
There is one particular contract that will more than likely give Yzerman nightmares for the next couple of seasons. This would be the contract of Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. There is no denying Stamkos is going to be looking for a pretty substantial bump in salary from the $7.5 million average base salary he currently brings in. Unfortunately, with only a couple million to play with, there isn’t much wiggle room.
Obviously, some changes are going to have to be made. The question now becomes, how can Steve Yzerman find a way to re-sign Steven Stamkos without dismantling the offensive, and potentially defensive core of the team? At the same time, even if Stamkos finds himself on a new team next season, where will Yzerman get the money to give some of the other remaining Free Agents the money they deserve going forward?
Well, Yzerman does have one way he can clear up some money without completely dismantling the team, but it isn’t exactly the nicest way to go about things. As of Wednesday afternoon, the 30 teams in the National Hockey League have the opportunity to buyout a player’s contract in the name of freeing up some cap space.
If the Tampa Bay Lightning are going to go this route, there is only one player who comes to mind as a likely candidate for said buyout; Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Matt Carle. Don’t get us wrong, Matt Carle is a really standup guy off of the ice. Unfortunately, on the ice, he is not exactly living up to the $5.5 million he makes per year as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Over the past couple of seasons, we have truly made an effort to defend Matt Carle and his play on the ice. In some senses, he has shown improvement. Carle seemed to step up his game during the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He even garnered the attention of the NBC Sports Broadcasters, and that’s saying something considering their malcontent for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t been enough to keep the spotlight off of him. Carle has never been what one would refer to as an offensively-minded defenseman. While he did make his way onto the scoreboard with two goals and seven assists for a total of nine points, his offense is really nothing to write home about. On the defensive side, things look even bleaker.
Out of the seven defensemen on the Tampa Bay Lightning who played at least half of the games last season, Matt Carle ranked in 6th place of the defensemen on the team in terms of hits. While many will jump to say, “at least he wasn’t last,” he beat Andrej Sustr by one lone hit. Things look a little better for him in terms of blocked shots, where he came in with 91. Unfortunately, this isn’t near the 105 and 132 blocked shots registered by Jason Garrison and Victor Hedman respectively.
Now, let’s take a little trip back to the 2014-15 season. In the 59 games Carle played in that season, he brought home a mere 26 hits. Let’s put this into a little perspective here. Former Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Eric Brewer, who was admonished by Lightning fans on a near daily basis for his play (and played for three teams over the course of the season,) brought home nine more hits than Matt Carle.
Did we forget to mention that Eric Brewer only played in 17 games that season? We’ll sit right here while we let that one soak in for a minute here.
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Matt Carle definitely made up some ground in terms of blocked shots, but was it worth the $5.5 million the Tampa Bay Lightning were paying him? Absolutely not. There is no denying Matt Carle is a talented defenseman. If not, Steve Yzerman would have never signed him to a deal in the first place. Unfortunately, like many players in the league, once they get comfortable, things begin to go drastically wrong.
Now, there is always the option of a trade. Regrettably, there are two things that are making this a much more unlikely option. The first of those is his performance. We have a feeling Yzerman is going to be hard-pressed to find a team who is willing to take on Carle’s salary with his performance as of late. The second is the simple fact that Matt Carle has a modified no-trade clause in his contract. This means he holds quite a few cards.
Carle is due $5.5 million for the next two seasons which comes to a total of $11 million. If the Lightning were to execute a buyout of his contract, they would be on the hook for 2/3 of his remaining salary. This means the Lightning would be responsible for around $7.3 million. On the bright side, this money can be spread out over the course of twice the remaining time left on his contract, which is two seasons.
With four years to spread the money out over, the Tampa Bay Lightning would be done around $1.83 million per year. This is definitely better than the $5.5 he’d be due over the course of the next two seasons, thus opening more cap space for Yzerman to spread around to some of the more deserving members on the team like Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, J.T. Brown, Vladislav Namestnikov, and many more players whose contracts are up this season.
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There is no denying Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman has some tough choices in front of him. Unfortunately, as each day continues to fade from the calendar, the less time he has to bring the bigger picture to light. Yzerman has done a pretty good job of building the Lightning not only a solid team on the ice but a solid core for the future. If there’s anyone who can work it out, it’s Yzerman.